Good day to all of you. Yesterday's single-day confirmed COVID cases in Taiwan was roughly 65K with 41 COVID deaths. It pales in comparison with those in other countries, but we all know too well how some Taiwanese locals react.
Political biases, uncertainty-triggered fear, and personal interests cloud their judgment more than we like to admit. The sad thing is there is nothing much we can do about it other than try our best to explain to those who are willing to listen. But first, we must let them know we are listening too. I thought over about how the cultural and historical influence on how people view public issues. It is not a surprise that people blame the government every time when things go bad. It is a habit that has been rooted deep not because of distrust. It is from the belief that the government or hilariously the president, IS the sole entity responsible for EVERYTHING the nation is going through. A democratic government is supposed to make sure the major things are taken care of, but it is still a bureaucratic system and for it to function strong and quick in times of crises, the people must actively become involved. Heroes do not wear capes and no human can singlehandedly carry a nation. That only happens in dictatorships where people worship their leaders out of blind admiration or pure fear. Only then would I say that the dictator/president/leader is the person responsible for failures. My US education allows me to see things in a broader scope. It made me look beyond the surface and try as much as I could to piece the puzzle together. I ask questions with the simple 5W1H and find answers to them. More importantly, when I am sort of done thinking, I go out and hustle either for work or for answers. The concept of hustling in Taiwan for traditional people is a boggling and scary endeavor. To them it means their kid or friend does not belong to any institution and has to earn his or her bread running around. It is unstable and therefore a BAD position. These people are usually the ones who tell, encourage, or force their children into seemingly stable jobs. While I am not here to point fingers, I am here to lay out that concept under a different lighting. Ask most people who are NOT Asian in the US, and they will tell you they know hustling is practicing to become a working and functional member of society. Hustling can hone skills in interviews, communicating with people of different socio-economic status, and gaining skillsets in fields previously unknown to them. Hustling is a process, not a "job". Going out to earn your money is respected and Americans are proud of that. It is not inefficiency. It is a PROCESS to get from point A to point B in life. And continues on forever. Instability does not always mean things are bad. It merely means we are not done building something. It is funny to see Taiwanese parents buy LEGOS for their kids and forget that the building process is actually some form of hustle. To me, it is making mistakes through stacking LEGOS together, actually crashing the work, and then redoing it all over again. Isn't that, in some way, instability? But isn't that instability ALSO the reason why the kids are thinking and trying to put together a stable building or LEGO work? As a slash professional, I hustle a lot, but I know what I am doing and the purpose of the hustle. It is a means to a greater end. I build my own career and business based on that. Students and startup team members who are close to me know how tough it is every day for me to set out and work with current students, potential parent clients, and schools. They see the teaching complexity and multiple roles I have to switch around to communicate and work. And they respect the hustle. Just because someone does not work from an office and earns more than 45K NTD per month, does not mean they do not know WHY they are doing it, HOW they are going to make it happen, and WHAT they do. Everything is a process of building. LEGOS is not something that "improves your kid's intelligence for test". It is a thinking process of hustling in a controlled environment, so that one day when they have to tackle multiple projects and job responsibilities, they can handle it just fine. Do not let culture get in the way of interpreting HUSTLE in a healthier way. You can not protect your children forever. They will fail somewhere eventually. If they don't fail now, the price of failing increases as they age. Do not rob them the opportunity to make mistakes and be ok with it. Kids should be able to make mistakes and not fear of being punished. They just need to have the thinking process of running over those mistakes and try to prevent them from happening again. Simple as that. I hustle to make education, society, and eventually my country, to become better. Why do you work besides paying the bills and wanting to buy more stuff?
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![]() This marks my 4th/5th year judging for this tournament. Each year, new and old debaters show up to challenge themselves. Some do it because they want something to use as part of the college application process. Many do it to showcase their language mastery. And then there is a small batch who do it because debate is truly fun for them. This was my first time being completely free from coaching duties and I assumed it was going to be more of a cakewalk. I was completely wrong. This marks the second year the tournament was held online and because of the abrupt change in venue, the tournament organizing team scrambled to put all checks and things in place. I want to first give a super big thumbs-up for that amazing and seemingly impossible feat. They may not be the team that steers us clear of the COVID-19 impact on healthcare, but they certainly play an important role in continuing education goals for Taiwan. As head judge, moderator, and time keeper for all three regionals (Northern, Central, and Southern), never have I ever felt the burden of ensuring the flow and smoothness of tournament lie so heavily on my shoulders. I guess that is a part of growing up as an adult. It is a signal of deeper trust from organizing head professor Charlotte Chang and a stronger commitment asked of me in terms of how Taiwan's education evolves. I am extremely grateful for that, considering that I was never a full-time teacher in public or private school. Oddballs like me tend to NOT have the opportunity to showcase our talents to help further society unless a few the "normal" elite adults see our worth and bring us to light. Most are just obsidian rocks sitting abandoned at some random corner. I learned a lot as an educator this school year and intend to bring them into what Education Legion intends to do in the long run. Hopefully during Nationals, we will be back to face-to-face tournament and clash like we used to. 2018-2019 was the last school year a face-to-face tournament was held. COVID-19 is truly a menace. I pray that our nation will survive and bounce back from the negative effects of this pandemic. During the third and final Regionals (Central), I was given the digital podium to give remarks on public forum track. I was and still am, very honored to give some tips to students on the essence of debate, the foundations of critical thinking and language, and the meaning of such activities for Taiwan's society. Truly, a very gruesome but fruitful series of Regionals! Policy and public forum are equally fun. I look forward to judging and mentoring more in the future! |
AuthorDoctor, journalist, English instructor, and social reformer Archives
May 2022
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